Business Intelligence

It was a near-miss, potential disaster that galvanized the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Oklahoma into taking action. Learn from an educator and an administrator how ECM tools have enabled the University of Oklahoma protect valuable records from disaster.

It was a near-miss, potential disaster that galvanized the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Oklahoma (OU) into taking action, says Dr. Rhonda Dean-Kyncl, assistant dean for college academic services. Her office staff is responsible for safely handling the entire academic histories of more than 8,000 students.

Tornados in Oklahoma and Texas. Wild fires in California and Colorado. Hurricanes in Louisiana and tropical storms along the upper East Coast. Not only do these disasters exert a terrible toll on people and on their personal lives, but they also wreak havoc on all manner and sizes of businesses, institutions of higher education among them. But disruptive events don’t have to be large-scale to have a catastrophic effect.

Tornados in Oklahoma and Texas. Wild fires in California and Colorado. Hurricanes in Louisiana and tropical storms along the upper East Coast. Not only do these disasters exert a terrible toll on people and on their personal lives, but they also wreak havoc on all manner and sizes of businesses, institutions of higher education among them.

An effective business continuity plan must be based on both a sound knowledge of your institution’s culture and structure, as well as on well-defined policies and procedures that make the plan a part of your daily operations, rather than something that is referred to only in case of emergency.

An effective business continuity plan must be based on both a sound knowledge of your institution’s culture and structure, as well as on well-defined policies and procedures that make the plan a part of your daily operations, rather than something that is referred to only in case of emergency.

An effective business continuity plan must be based on both a sound knowledge of your institution’s culture and structure, as well as on well-defined policies and procedures that make the plan a part of your daily operations, rather than something that is referred to only in case of emergency.

For most colleges and universities, having students live on campus can provide a number of benefits, both in revenue and in classroom performance. So how can an institution maximize the benefits while creating an atmosphere that not only attracts a growing number of students, but also ensures that their experience is mutually beneficial? A comprehensive approach that emanates from the concept of providing improved value for the on-campus resident can have far reaching benefits for both student and school.

In this environment of ever-tightening budgets, staff reductions, and increased workloads, it’s more essential than ever for knowledge workers to gain efficiencies, doing their jobs faster but without sacrificing quality and accuracy. As burdensome as this sounds given the restraints on resources that impede these objectives, increasing productivity is entirely within reach. Transparent records management technology offers just this sort of opportunity.

The USC Contracts and Grants department was struggling to maintain efficiencies in the face of a paper flow situation that threatened to engulf them. Exacerbating the problem was that to facilitate agreements and arrive at resolutions, a great deal of interaction and information-sharing with other campus entities was required.

If the various departments on campus were entirely self-contained, never having to share information with, or seek it out from, other departments, then a paper-based, hardcopy system might not be so unwieldy. But as anyone in education will tell you, no department is an island. Instead, there’s a massive amount of back and forth; a reality that a paper-based system is increasingly ill-suited for, says Linda Ding, education program strategist for Laserfiche.